Para rider determined to get back in saddle after breaking both legs
International para dressage rider Lucy Barclay is determined to return to riding a second time after breaking both her legs in a recent fall.
Mrs Barclay, who was paralysed from the waist down in a riding accident in 2001, has worked her way to the top of her sport, competing at the World Para Dressage Championships in 2007.
But now she faces a similar fight to get back into the saddle after suffering a spiral fracture to the femur of her left leg and a clean break to her right on 23 February.
“Lucy was doing a practice dressage test at home on her new horse when he spooked,” said her husband James, from their Lincolnshire home.
“She is back in the spinal unit of the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield, but she is hoping to make a second comeback.
“She wants to thank everyone who has sent her messages and has been so kind since the accident,” he added.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.